This year sixty-five individuals attended Conservation Lobby Day, representing twenty-two different organizations! Co-sponsoring groups launched a targeted lobbying effort on key legislation. We sent out teams of coalition members to lobby jointly. This show of broad base support was a very successful new approach. Legislators took note of the diversity of organizations committed to conservation issues. We were able to voice our conservation concerns to senators and representatives and feel like we were really being listened to. Speaking with a united voice is very powerful.
Department of Natural Resources Director, Doyle Childers spoke to a standing room only crowd. Coalition partners will be monitoring his commitment to work at building bridges and bringing opposing coalitions together. The large turn out of coalition members willing to travel to Jefferson City and meet with the new Director sent a powerful message.

We won’t know the total impact of our Conservation Lobbying efforts until the gavel goes down the final day of session. We need to remain vigilant and keep our legislators true to their word. However, we should all be celebrating the results of our united efforts to let elected officials at the Capitol know there are many citizens interested in conserving and protecting the natural resources of our state.

Critical bill update:
We have had some successes on key legislation:

We stopped the Dirty Secrets bill from being attached to an omnibus bill that included refunding of several Department of Natural Resources programs. Thanks to all of the Democrats on the committee and two Republican Representatives that held firm in their opposition. Chairman of the Conservation and Natural Resources Committee, Steve Hobbs, has said publicly that he will NOT pass that bill out of his Committee. As always, we will remain vigilant and watch for amendments on other bills.

The Waste Tire fee renewal, HB192 and the Parks and Soils Tax legislation, SJR 1 and HJR16 are moving through the process. Several attendees at the Conservation Lobby Day lobbied their legislators to pass this legislation. It’s looking very promising that these critical bills will pass this session.

Now for the bad news:
Despite our best efforts to kill the CAFO legislation the House Agriculture Policy Committee is currently working to pass a House Committee Substitute (HCS) for SB187. The bill has been drastically rewritten. Completely new language has been added requiring counties to conduct a regulatory impact report before enacting any County Health Ordinances. The requirements for the Regulatory Impact Report are cumbersome, extremely expensive and fraught with legal loopholes favoring CAFOs. If this bill passes in its current form it means basically the end to County Health Ordinances. These ordinances have been the only real way to control CAFOs taking over our state.
We will be working to amend this language out of the bill.

See complete and current list of 2005 Missouri General Assembly Environmental Bills of Interest

A special thank you to  Conservation Lobby Day co-sponsors

Audubon Missouri Bass Hole Bass Club 
Brookside Environmental Studies
Conservation Federation of Missouri 
Family Farms for the Future
Greenway Network 
MO AFL-CIO MO Blue/Green Alliance
MO Coalition for the Environment 
MO Farmers Union 
MO Organic Association
MO Parks Association 
MO Public Interest Research Group – MoPIRG
MO Rural Crisis Center 
MO Smallmouth Alliance 
MO Votes Conservation
MO Women’s Network 
Open Space Council 
Ozark Chapter of the Sierra Club
Ozark Flyfishers 
Patchwork Family Farms
Republicans for Environmental Protection 
River Bluffs 
Audubon
Scenic MO 
Trailnet 
United Steelworkers of America – District 11